Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1 eBook

LETTER IV.

JOURNEY FROM DIEPPE TO ROUEN—­PRIORY OF
LONGUEVILLE—­ROUEN—­BRIDGE OF
BOATS—­COSTUME OF THE INHABITANTS.

(Rouen, June, 1818.)

I arrived alone at this city: my companions,
who do not always care to keep pace with my constitutional
impatience, which sometimes amuses, and now and then
annoys them, made a circuit by Havre, Bolbec, and Yvetot,
while I proceeded by the straight and beaten track.
What I have thus gained in expedition, I have lost
in interest. During the whole of the ride, there
was not a single object to excite curiosity, nor would
any moderate deviation from the line of road have
brought me within reach of any town or tower worthy
of notice, except the Priory of Longueville, situate
to the right of the road, about twelve miles from Dieppe.
I did not see Longueville, and I am told that the
ruins are quite insignificant, yet I regret that I
did not visit them. The French can never be made
to believe that an old rubble wall is really and truly
worth a day’s journey: hence their reports
respecting the notability of any given ruin can seldom
be depended upon. And at least I should have
had the satisfaction of ascertaining the actual state
of the remains of a building, known to have been founded
and partly built in the year 1084, by Walter Giffard[22],
one of the relations and companions of the Conqueror,
in his descent upon England, and therefore created
Earl of Buckingham, or, as the French sometimes write
it, Bou Kin Kan. The title was held by
his family only till 1164 when, upon the decease of
his son without issue, the lands of his barony were
shared among the collateral female heirs. He
himself died in 1102, and by his will directed that
his body should be brought here, which was accordingly
done; and he was buried, as Ordericus Vitalis[23] tells
us, near the entrance of the church, having over him
an epitaph of eight lines, “in maceria picturis
decorata.” You will find the epitaph, wherein
he is styled “templi fundator et aedificator,”
copied both in the Neustria Pia and in Ducarel’s
Anglo-Norman Antiquities. The latter speaks
of it as if it existed in his time; but the doctor
seldom states the extent of his obligations towards
his predecessors. And in consequence of this
his silent gratitude, we can never tell with any degree
of certainty whether we are perusing his observations
or his transcripts. If he really saw the inscriptions
with his own eyes, it is greatly to be regretted that
he has given us no information respecting the paintings:
did they still exist, they would afford a most genuine
and curious proof of the state of Norman art at that
remote period; and possibly, a search after them among
the cottages in the neighborhood might even now repay
the industry of some keen antiquary; for the French
revolution may well he compared to an earthquake:
it swallowed up every thing, ingulphing some so deep